Showing posts with label New Spells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Spells. Show all posts

Monday, August 3, 2020

Unlimited Spellbook Rule


Somewhere, in all these dusty RPG books, a great idea got lost--that spells are for wizards, and wizards should have to look them up.

This is also a nice option for those of you who don't like Vancian magic's whole "out of spells for the day" thing.


UNIVERSAL SPELLBOOK RULE

Basic premise

A wizard can use literally any spell from any book they can find, including ones for higher-level wizards. Another edition, another setting, Call of Cthulhu, Warhammer, Shadowrun, Sea Dracula whatever. They can even use spells from non-gamebooks like the Lesser Key of Solomon or whatever. It doesn't even matter how many spell slots you have left--you can just keep going at 0 if you're crazy enough.

How this isn't as good as it sounds:

Base chance to succeed is 60% plus or minus modifiers below. Misfires are nasty.

(Minimum chance, no matter what modifiers are applied, is 5%)


Interpreting the spell:

To start with, the casting player reads the spell aloud, stopping whenever the spell refers to a number (5' or level-number of targets or 3d6) or a game mechanic that doesn't exist or work the same in the native system (referring to saving throws or a dice pool in a system without them, for example).

The player then must translate the spell, as follows:

-Each time the player reaches a number they can propose the number remains the same or they can propose an alternate number or range that they believe is an approximate local-system equivalent of that number (for example, if a spell from a 2d6 system says +2 the player could propose a +3 for a d20 system).

-Each time the text refers to an alien game mechanic, the player must propose an alternate way to account for that feature of the spell. For example, a spell which reduces an enemy's Dodge Pool might instead reduce their armor class and saving throws in a system without a Dodge Pool. If the spell costs Magic Points and the native system has no Magic Points then the player might propose a loss of hit points or a save vs a loss of hp. Numbers again must be provided.

If the GM agrees with the translation of a given change or thinks the change makes the spell less powerful than it is meant to be in the original system, it is applied to the spell description.

If the GM doesn't agree with a change because it seems to make the spell more powerful than it is meant to be in the original, the change is still applied but the caster subtracts -10% from their chance to successfully cast the spell.

Ritual actions or components from the original still must be performed/used.


Other Modifiers

Modifiers based on the caster

For every point of wizard's intelligence +1%

For every level the wizard has +1%

(What if the system doesn't have D&D-style stats and levels? Then GM estimates caster competence and experience on a scale of 1-40 within that system and applies that as a lump sum modifier.)

Modifiers based on the spell

The book the spell is from is not an RPG book: -40%

Same basic game (all editions and retroclones of D&D are "the same basic game", for instance) but a spell level the caster's not normally able to access: -5% per level differential

Different basic game (or not a game) and the GM thinks it's more powerful than the caster's normally able to cast, that is, it looks like a "higher level" spell: -20%

This spell has already been successfully cast by this caster: +2%

Different era of magic: -5%
The eras are
-70s-80s and modern retrogames
-90s
-21st century


Succeeding in the Roll Means...

The spell works as described. Succeeding in the casting roll does not mean you get to skip any other die rolls that may result in success or failure within the spell description.


Failing The Roll Means...

The spell is cast in a way counter to the PC's goals and the more powerful the spell, the more powerful this backfire will be. Most backfire dweomers will simply take a choice that the spell gives the caster and make a different choice. Usually this is a choice of target: a Power Word: Kill spell miscast will, obviously, kill the caster, a miscast healing spell will heal enemies, etc. but this can also apply to other choices--a wizard using a Minor Creation spell to create a bear trap might instead create a foul-smelling mushroom that attracts monsters, or a wizard trying to change the weather to create rain to kill a fire elemental might summon a hurricane, unless that's also fine with the caster, in which case it might result in boiling heat.

Since magic cares more about will and intent than physics, attempts to game the system won't work--a caster who is immune to flame who botches a fireball will be struck by an ice ball, a caster trying to fail a healing spell on purpose in order to heal enemies and make peace will end up inflicting wounds on their allies, etc. Trying to take advantage of the "cast this spell before" modifier by making lots of low-risk Wishes for instance ("I wish for more toothpicks") won't work because the backfire is as powerful as the spell itself, not the way the caster chooses to use it.

A miscast should create a problem approximately equal to the expected benefit but, more importantly, the fear of a miscast sending the spell into the hands of the GM should act as a self-balancing mechanism on the power of spells chosen.
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Wednesday, July 25, 2018

The Quality of A Ritual

We all tend to like rituals, but when it comes to actually describing them in games we tend to choose one of two options:

-Verrrrry specific rituals that basically only end up getting used once for a specific effect, or
-Abstracted ideas about rituals like "Requires 800gp worth of materials" that are generally useful but lack flavor.

For Demon City, we tried to get a little deeper into how the systems of ritual worked. Here's Zedeck Siew with Corpse Oil rituals...

CORPSE OIL 
(a riff off Nam Man Prai, which is from the Thai phram (shamanic) folk tradition)

The act itself is relatively simple: chanting scripture, you hold a candle under the chin of a recently dead person. The air is rancid. Yellow, fatty fluid seeps from the crisping flesh.

Corpse oil has many uses. One chin yields a jam-jar-ful. Potency depends on provenance. If a corpse is:

- Beloved.
- A young woman.
- A virgin, until death.
- Your blood relation.
- Killed in grisly violence.
- Killed by your own hand.
- Properly buried and mourned.

Then each of the above conditions increases the quality and potency of the oil. In game terms each confers a “point” of Intensity.

~

Mixing in consecrated philtres, speaking the proper spells, a necromancer may prepare corpse oil in several ways.

As an ointment, on contact with skin, it can confer the following effects (In order of quality of oil required)

Requires only corpse oil—the quality is irrelevant
- Wheezing fatigue.
- An inability to recognise faces.
- Bad breath that spoils food.
- The ability to talk to gravestones.

Requires an oil of Intensity 2.
- Wracking back pains.
- An inability to use stairs.
- A musk that attracts vermin.
- The ability to command birds.

Requires an oil of Intensity 3.
- Night terrors.
- An inability to feel pain.
- An odour that repulses women.
- The ability to query reflections.

Requires an oil of Intensity 4.
- Miscarriage.
- A strong sexual attraction to you.
- A bright glow visible to evil entities.
- The ability to dictate card games.

Requires an oil of Intensity 5.
- Liver failure.
- Susceptibility to your suggestions.
- A touch that burns holy persons.
- Invincibility, when holding breath.

As a grease, ritually applied to a single building’s foundations, it lends the structure special virtues:

Requires only corpse oil—the quality is irrelevant
- Unnaturally stuffy.
- Deals made here cannot lose you money.

Requires oil of Intensity 3
- Gives restless sleep.
- Residents are inclined to obey you.

Requires oil of Intensity 5.
- Sounds do not carry.
- Doors are always open for you.

Requires oil of Intensity 6.
- Traps disquiet spirits.
- Irresistibly draws the eye.

Requires oil of Intensity 7
- Confuses your enemies.
- Cannot be demolished.

As a fetish, a jar wrapped in yellow talisman paper, it fetters the ghost of the person from which it came. This spirit:

Requires an oil of Intensity 3:
- Cramps or twists muscle, with a touch.
- Manifests a corporeal, unspoiled body.
- Speaks with the voice of anyone living.
- Roams beyond the sight of its fetish jar.

Requires an oil of Intensity 6
- Exudes steamy, flesh-eating ectoplasm.
- May possess any male-identified person.
- Captures the souls of un-weaned babies.
- Banishes other ghosts with its presence.
- Steals air from the lungs of living things.
- Does not remember anything of its past.

Each preparation comes with a unique command mantra. Those who speak this formula are masters who the corpse oil cannot harm, and must obey.

~

Without its command mantra, corpse oil effects can only be lifted by ritual healing (Heal the Flesh ritual, etc). Effective treatment depends on who’s treating. If an exorcist is:

- A priest or religious ascetic.
- From a different religious tradition.
- Celibate.
- Vegetarian.
- Of non-human lineage.
- Related to a royal family.
- Master of their own corpse-oil ghost.

Each of the above conditions improve the quality and strength of the exorcism. You may disrupt one corpse-oil effect per condition met.

If the exorcism’s total number of conditions exceeds the corpse oil’s total quality, the substance is destroyed. If not, the corpse oil’s effects return after C10 (that is pick a card 1-10) days.
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Donate to the Demon City Kickstarter here

Friday, June 24, 2016

New 3rd Level Spells

Crowdsourced using this thread on Google+. These versions have been edited and sometimes altered. If you aren't in my Google+ circles and want to be just email zakzsmith AT hawtmayle or send me a G+ message asking to be added to my RPG circles--include a link to your Google + page or I will have no idea how to add you. 

3rd level spells

Begone
Wizard
Target: Creature
Save: Wis negates
Target is teleported to a random part of a random adjacent room. (One that is adjacent on the map, not necessarily one that is connected by a doorway.)


Disgorging Insects
Cleric,Druid
Target: 1 Person
Range: 60 feet
Duration: 10 minutes
Save: Wis save negates

Whenever target speaks, a stream of insects comes from his/her mouth, rather than words. This spell renders verbal communication and spell casting impossible.

Egotist's Masquerade
Wizard
Target: all humanoids within 100'
Duration: 1 round/lvl
Save: Wis negates
All creatures within range are cloaked in an illusion that makes them look and sound like you. Unwilling targets get a save to resist.

Hold The Door
Cleric
Duration: 10 minutes/level
Range: touch
All damage that would be dealt to target inorganic object is dealt to target willing person instead. If they die the effect is broken. The object can be up to the size of a cottage.

Jig-Self
Wizard, Witch
Target : self
Duration: 10 minutes

You may separate yourself into (up to) a dozen pieces. You may choose the size and shape of the various sections of self, as long as every side of the removed area, is a flat plane. 

Each removed part remains alive and active, though they possess no qualities beyond what are normally enjoyed. For example, a hand may crawl, but cannot see. An eyeball may see, but not move in any way. A tongue may both taste and grossly wriggle along , but it's not going to hear anything...or jump onto a table (unless it's a really big tongue).

Splitting the brain results in fractional INT beings (e.g.. halve INT for 2 pieces, a third each for 3 and so on). Split skills and languages evenly between the parts.

You may reform the pieces, at any time during the spell duration, so long as all other pieces are within line of sight, e.g. no blocking obstacles. Otherwise, CON save (D.C. 8+number of pieces). Success and reformation occurs centred round brain. Failure indicates permanent separation, requiring Greater Restoration or Regeneration to return to natural state. 

Laschamp’s Swap
Cleric, Wizard
Duration: d6 rounds
Range: 60 feet
Save: If unwilling see below
Target swaps its highest and lowest ability scores. Unwilling targets save on their worst stat.


Lightning Trap
Wizard
Target: Damaging AoE spell
You can cast this spell as a reaction, like feather fall. A damaging AoE spell is halted as soon as it's cast. A fireball is frozen in the earliest stages of explosion, when it is the size of an egg. A lightning bolt is just a neon light frozen down the hallway. This stasis lasts as long as the caster doesn't move.


Nativate
Cleric, Druid, Witch
Target: Disguised or transformed creature
Duration: 1 hour/lvl
Save: Wis negates
The target believes itself to be whatever creature it is disguised as, or transformed into. It loses all memories of its previous life. The cover identity becomes the only identity.

Obsessive Compulsion: Duplication
Wizard, Witch
Target: 1 Person
Range: 120 feet
Duration: Special
Save: Wis save negates

Target must perform their last round action each round untilt hey make a Wis save. If, for whatever reason, the action is not possible, the target tries to duplicate it nevertheless; for instance running into a wall/from a cliff, slashing at an already defeated foe, or going through the motions of casting a spell in case that particular spell is not memorized anymore.


Out of the Frying Pan
Wizard
Teleports the party into a random room in a random dungeon.

Respite
Cleric 
Target: creature or object
Duration: 1 round
Target can ignore some permanent negative effect caused by magic. People who have magically blinded can see. People who have been petrified are flesh and blood. People who have been killed return to life only if they were killed last round.
  
Sleepthief
Cleric
Range: touch
Save: Con negates
Exchange exhaustion levels with your target. If you haven't slept in three days and they're bright as a daisy, now it's the opposite. Unwilling targets get a saving throw.

Sphere of Seclusion
Wizard, Sorceror, Cleric
Area of effect: 30 foot radius around caster
Durations: 1 round/level with concentration

Nothing can leave target area. Not even light and therefore it looks pitch black from the outside. For any observer outside, treat everything within as fully concealed and silenced.

Anything can, however, enter the area, including light and sound. Anybody inside the area can see and hear anything both within and outside the sphere.

The spell will end if more damage is done to the sphere than twice the caster's level in a single blow or by a single (magical) effect. The sphere then shatters and vanishes. The damage can only be applied from the inside.

Strange Attractor
Witch
You create a small voodoo doll. Creatures in the dungeon will be drawn to it and will seek to destroy it. Every ten minutes, roll a wandering monster check for the voodoo doll, and the resultant creature gets a Wis save to resist (unless it is genuinely curious as to where this unsettling feeling is coming from, in which case it may choose to investigate the hunch anyway).

Stretching Hallway
Wizard, witch
Target:Hallway
Duration: 10 minutes.
Pick a point in a hallway. The hallway stretches out from that point becoming longer and non-Euclidean. It effectively becomes 60 feet longer for every caster level.

Unravel
Druid
Target: chimeric creature
Duration: permanent
Save: Con negates

Target chimera separates into its component creatures. (Any creature made from different animals fused together, or anything with multiple heads.) A chimera would become a goat, a wyvern, a lion, and a snake. Tiamat would become five dragons.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Some New 2nd Level Spells for 5e D&D or Whatever

Crowdsourced using this thread on Google+. These versions have been edited and sometimes altered. If you aren't in my Google+ circles and want to be just email zakzsmith AT hawtmayle or send me a G+ message asking to be added to my RPG circles--include a link to your Google + page or I will have no idea how to add you. 


Adamant Grip
Cleric/Paladin/Wizard/Witch
2/rnds level duration, end as a free action
One handheld item
No save

For the duration 1 handheld item may not be removed from your grip unless you expressly choose to end the effect as a free action. It is held by a kind of magical magnetism, a kinship beyond physical, and functions like a part of your body. If it is a tool or weapon you double your proficiency bonus in its use. If it is a consumable item it will not spoil, shatter, or otherwise ruin in your grip. If it is a shield you may add your shield bonus to your saves. If it is another mundane item or valuable the item will remain in your possession, intact, until you release it, even a string of pearls with a golem tugging on it. If you are magically petrified the item will not be petrified like the rest of your gear.

Dispel magic can override the effect, someone can Command or Charm you into releasing your grip, other magical exceptions apply. Otherwise even great force pulling on the object will be like pulling on your arm, so you can be thrown around by it and ripping the item free would do as much damage as ripping your hand off. 

The item has to be something your character can lift with one hand without becoming encumbered. So you can't attach yourself to an orc or a horse or a cart but you could attach yourself to your magical staff or the reins of your horse and stuff. You can use it to attach yourself to a line (like rope or chain) but it only secures your current handhold, so it's best for stopping falls and such.

I guess you can cast it at higher levels to extend the duration or add +1 to any of the described effects but not both.


Arcane Confluence
Wizard
Range: Special
Target: Two memorized spells
Duration: Special
Casting Time: 1 round

The caster chooses two different memorized spells that will be cast simultaneously in the next round. It becomes effectively a single spell with the worst/lowest duration, area of effect, number of targets of the two spells. If the spells have two different saving throws, the receiver may choose which save to use.





Corpse Mirror
Witch
Range: touch
Area of Effect: 1 mirror
You reach into a mirror and pull out a corpse that looks exactly like you. If anyone uses speak with dead on it, it says the opposite of whatever you would say.



Fragile Egg
Druid, Witch
Casting Time 10 minutes
Range 0
A of Effect-One hollow egg
Duration 2 hours / caster level


This spell creates a hidden space inside a hollowed-out egg, which can hold up to 30 lbs or 3 cubic ft. of material.

The item can be made from the egg of any creature which has previously been carefully emptied and painted with appropriate magical sigils. At the end of the Casting Time the caster places the item(s) desired into the shell.

The caster may not remove any item without breaking the Egg and dispelling the magic. Only non-living, unenchanted items may be stored within, and while there no time passes for them. This allows the storage of cooked food, lit flames and volatile liquids.

The result weighs no more than a normal unhatched egg, and is just as fragile.

When the spell duration runs out, if the Fragile Egg is shattered or the magic Dispelled, everything that was stored inside instantly hatches out. On occasion there may also be found small traces of rich soil and leaves, for reasons unknown.




Ganonball
Range: 50'
Area of Effect: object/creature
Wizard
Make an attack roll against a target creature. They make an attack roll, and if they beat your attack roll, they knock the ganonball back at you. This process repeats until someone fails to beat the previous attack roll, and they get hit in the face with the ganonball, which does d6 for each attack roll made.


I Am You, And You Are She
Wizard, Witch
10 minute duration
30 ft radius sphere
CHA save if aware of spell

Caster randomly swaps around the faces of every living thing (including self) within a 30 ft radius--must be at least 3 creatures. This includes animals. 1 in 20 chance  of gaining some permanent feature of the face briefly worn.




Invisible Candle
Witch, Druid
Range: touch
Area of Effect: you
Duration: 1 round/level of caster
If you hold a light source, its light becomes invisible to anyone except you.


Mortification of the Flesh
Cleric, Witch
Target: Caster

The caster asks his or her God to grant a spell from the cleric's spell list that (s)he is able to cast. To do so, the cleric must flog him/herself. For each d8 of inflicted damage, there is a cumulative 10% chance that the spell will be granted--maximum of 60%. The number of d8's must be chosen before rolling.



Mouse Time
Witch
Range: 10'
Area of Effect: 1 willing creature for every caster level
Reagent: 1 mouse per target, held by you
Duration: 1 round/level of caster
You shrink to mouse size, and the mouse grows to your size. This spell also works on things that are merely mouse-sized.


Precarious Haggling
Wizard, Witch
Range: One object
Duration: 24 hours

The (gp) price of target object is halved, but an additional cost is to be paid as determined by a random roll on a goblin market price list table ( eg. the one on Zak's blog: dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2015/10/goblin-market-works-like-this.html ).
The object must be purchased within the next 24 hours or the seller will never sell anything to the caster anymore.



Safe Escape
Wizard 
Duration: instantaneous
Range: caster
Save: none

Teleports the caster 1d1000 feet in a random direction. If this makes the caster appear within something solid they will instead appear within the nearest bit of open space. May result in the caster suffering significant falling damage.


Skein of Fate
Cleric/Wizard/Witch
Range: Line of sight
Area of Effect: 1 creature

Caster roll 2d20--those will be the target creature's next two d20 rolls. Caster doesn't have to tell the target the results if they don't want to.



Staring Contest
Wizard
Range: 50'
Target: 1 creature

A target who meets your gaze must make a save. If they fail, pause the game. You fight the target in a side-combat, 1-on-1. The side-combat takes place inside a spherical room 30' in diameter (located inside your eye). The side-combat ends when someone is reduced to 0 HP. The loser immediately passes out for 1d6 minutes. Damage taken inside the side-combat does not carry over into the real world, but non-bodily effects do (such as insanity, curses, etc).



Till Death Do Us Part
Witch
Range: Line of sight
Target: One creature
Duration: One minute

Target creature and the caster are linked by a magical bond and cannot move away from each other beyond the distance during the spell. The only natural way to disperse the bond is by the death of either one.


Transpose Person
Wizard
Range: 10'/ (At 4th level: line of sight)
Area of Effect: two creatures

Caster and target creature of human-size switch places.


Weretime
Witch, Druid
You turn into a common local animal for 10 minutes. You do not have any control over the creature for the duration. It will behave as a normal creature would.


Wandering Eye 
Witch
Duration: 10 minutes (Concentration)
Range: Touch
Save: None
Components: V,S,M (two small marbles)

The caster's eyeballs and marbles switch places for the duration of the spell. The caster can continue to see out of the eyeballs but not out of the marbles. Each eyeball has 1 HP and AC 8. If the eyeball were to be destroyed, it returns without ill effect to the caster's eye socket.
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Friday, April 10, 2015

7 D&Dables From Doctor Strange

Click to enlarge.
365-level wizard wants you to live in this crappy castle forever instead of him

Clock pendulum trap

Just show them that

The damsel you saved wasn't meant to be saved

You are divided into several poorly-rounded selves

Some freaks to fight

Each star is scheming against every other

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

D100 Witch Traits

If you're playing a witch or warlock, you can roll on this table instead of taking the usual level-up extra. Spells known, spell slots, saves, proficiency and combat advance as usual.

To make a witch/warlock out of an old system that doesn't have one, make a cleric, druid or magic-user and just give up one 1st-level spell each level for a witch trait.

I only wrote the first one--the rest was crowdsourced here . I erased 50-odd entries to pare it down to a clean 100, leaving out ones that seemed least likely to be useful in play. However, some of them were fun, so it you're in my Google+ circles, you might want to take a look.

I've made a few suggestions in parenthesis to make some more gameable. If you think of anything to make one more concrete, put it in the comments.

1, By concentrating, you can cause any sleeping creature you have observed before to open its eyes and look around for 3 rounds, during which you can see through its eyes.

2, You may talk any domestic (Or ordinary--including wolves, bears, etc) animal into suicide (in a number of rounds=its hd).

3, You always spoil milk around you. You can't choose. 

4, You can smell emotions. It's 70% accurate.

5, Your spit burns the holy. (d4 per holy class level?)

6, If you prepare a corpse, crows will come and tell you news.

7, Domestic animals hate you (can't think why).

8, healing spells still work on you but replace portions of your flesh with tattooed holy scriptures/tracts, which the cleric's god hopes you will read and thereby learn the error of your ways;

9, If you eat something, you can cause someone else to vomit it up. This could be used in odd ways e.g. sending an ally in prison a key. Or you could just make paladins disgorge huge quantities of blood and spiders etc. etc. 

10, Your fingernails grow long and hard, and are excellently suited to digging in unconsecrated ground. (Claw attack.)

11, When you laugh (or cackle, really), your true nature is exposed through any disguise or illusion. The upside: this also causes Fear (act at -4 or run away) in living creatures that hear it and fail a saving throw.

12, You ate your twin. It gives you advice sometimes, in dark places.

13, If you bring a statue an acceptable gift it will tell you about something it has seen.

14, one of your hands is a chickens claw. If you let it scratch idly in the dirt it writes down the secrets of those close to you. But sometimes it writes down your secrets and you never know which secret belongs to who.

15, You know a secret demonic process to turn the fat of children into a skin cream, rubbed on furniture, it can bring the furniture to life (although the ambling desk or wardrobe is no smarter than a child).

16, By talking to anyone for about five minutes, you somehow come to know their deepest childhood fear.

17, Can cause miscarriages or deformed stillbirths by staring at people and blinking in certain patterns. 

18, You can spontaneously cause really innocuous mishaps. If you pin them on someone else the mishaps suddenly become a much bigger deal.

19, Teeth will not stay in your mouth for longer than a day; everyday you must implant teeth other than you already wore in your mouth. The teeth may tell you secrets or give you a bite attack.

20, They tried to execute you once, but somehow it didn't work. Roll 1d6 to determine the method of your almost-demise : 1 Burning  2 Drowning 3 Hanging 4 Pressing with stones 5 Beheading 6 Poking with brands You still bear the marks/scars of your execution. Depending on how you survived, this may be minor or may be e.g. you are literally carrying your own head around. 

21, Trigger local epidemics of infectious disease by humming lullabies in the garden of someone who's offended you. At night of course.

22, Guilt makes people weak to your magic. If someone commits a crime or a sin, they have a saving throw penalty against you; if you can trick a good person into doing something awful, you can rewrite their destiny. 

23, Your tongue splits like a snake's. You gain bonuses to telling lies and casting suggestion spells, but when you tell the truth people might not believe you. 

24, If you make a man cry you can discover what he truly fears. 

25, You become diabolically attractive - probably in a very lush, sensual way. Unfortunately, someone powerful becomes stalkerishly obsessed with you. You might be able to influence them, but then again they might try to have you judicially murdered for rejecting their advances. 

26, Cats spy for you.

27, Your bodily fluids can bring shadows to life as your servants. 

28, Insects will guard you while you sleep.

29, Birds will steal small items for you.

30, Demons cannot resist dancing with you.

31, Uncanny ability to quickly learn foreign languages, written or spoken, lip read, sign languages, codes.

32, Can mimic precisely infants crying or the sounds small animals make. 

33, Cold skin, slow heartbeat - excellent at feigning death.

34, Occasionally sucking on boiled bones will turn you invisible.

35, Propensity to break into saccharine and uplifting musical numbers. Ability to present self as the real victim in all circumstances, regardless of actual state of affairs. 

36, Your appetite becomes enormous and almost insatiable. Fortunately, you can now dislocate your jaw and distend your throat, which will help when you try to swallow that cow. 

37, Can only step through a threshold when walking backwards.

38, You have a single, detachable eye.

39, You have two "sisters" - not necessarily female. Perhaps you were both reborn at the same initiation ritual. Whatever the reason, you know everything they are doing, feel a sympathetic twinge if they suffer pain, death or love, and can cast more powerful spells if you work together with them. Unfortunately, they are ghastly people, of a sort you would never otherwise want to know. 

40, Extraordinary sense of smell.

41, Deeply narcissistic, will watch yourself speaking if a mirror or reflective surface is within sight rather than looking at whoever you are speaking to.

42, You can shape shift into an appropriate animal. In the absence of other cultural contexts, choose one of the following: hare, fox, deer, cat or owl. 

43, Eyes in the back of your head. They work.

44, If you can get a sexual partner to submit to you, you can transform them into a useful animal under your control - a horse, for example, or a guard dog. They are aware, but in a kind of dreamlike state. They do not age. When they are killed, when you are killed or when they are touched by a holy symbol, they will revert to their original form. 

45, Extra fingers, they smell like exotic spices and the fumes can intoxicate people who's faces you stroke. 

46, Perhaps you could repel water, like magnetic repulsion. You could never touch water again (or drink it). It would roll away from you. Maybe you would be thirsty a lot. You would need to take sand baths. You could not pick up things in puddles or pools. Sailors might try to capture you, put you in a cage and use you to create a bubble or bathysphere for deep sea exploration. 

47, While you sleep, your hands autonomously scratch writing onto your belly.  The writing has a 40% chance to be blasphemy, 40% chance to be mere insults (against you), and 20% chance to be a warning about something you are likely to encounter tomorrow.  When possible, combine these categories.

48, You can't cross running water, or enter sanctified grounds

49, Clerical turning works against you as if you were undead

50, You can only enter religious establishments or sacred ground with the intent to fornicate within. 

51, If you incubate an egg over two weeks, it will hatch into an intelligent, mean-spirited rooster that will nevertheless be completely loyal to you as long as it in the same room as you.  However, if you are ever dropped to 0 HP, the rooster will rush over to you, suck all of your blood out of your eyes (killing you) and turn into a 6' anthropoid cockatrice hybrid-thing with no allegiance except its own.

52, You are not beautiful. Yet. Every so often, you will become obsessed with a particular feature of some stranger. Perhaps they have an aquiline nose or a striking eyes. They may not be conventionally attractive at all. You will stalk them, incapacitate them, cut off that feature using a special knife, then cut off the corresponding piece of your own face and, with careful motions, stitch your new acquisition into place. (It will work--you'll appear to be them.) For some reason, the brief period of elated self-contemplation that follows deliquesces, inevitably, into dissatisfaction, envy and further crimes. 

53, But if someone paints an eye on it, so that it stares back at you, your powers will not work on it until the eye is defaced. You know when you have entered the country of witches by the omnipresence of eyes. 

54, You are linked to the last person who drank some amount of your saliva (or other bodily fluids).  At will, you can cause the linked person to vomit leaves and dead crows, but this terminates the link.

55, You can transform harpy eggs into "disaster eggs". http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/01/dungeon-mistress-mandy.html?m=1&zx=2b5a5eb063d414e

56, There is a small creature living in your stomach.  (Rat/octopus/unborn twin/beetle, rolled randomly).  You must feed it a live mouse (or equivalent) every day or it will begin to gnaw on your liver, but in exchange, any poison you would normally suffer is delayed for 1d6 hours.

57, You radiate an aura of spiteful informational decay. That is: stories in books start to change to have unhappy endings; actors performances become clumsy or clownish in tragedies, inexplicably heartbreaking in comedies; messages in letters twist subtly to warp the intended meaning and sew division. Everything around you is in a perpetual state of Chinese whispers, with the worst possible outcomes. 

58, Babies spontaneously cry around you.  However, if you make a Charisma check, you can subtly influence the babies to speak whatever words you want (even if the baby hasn't learned to talk yet).

59, You are two people (physically, not just mentally, like a were-human human).  They have the same stats/race/class but are opposite genders.  They have separate names, and you switch between them whenever you sleep.  They hate each other, and will often try to inconvenience/embarrass the other via traps or subtlety.

60, By stripping naked and killing a goat, you can pass through its body into another LIVING goat within 1 mile.  You make a bloody exit from the second goat, killing it.

61, Whenever you and you companions are well and truly lost (i.e. you don't know where you are AND you don't know how to get back to safety/destination), you become hirsute, horned, and incapable of speech.  You get +2 to hit and are incapable of getting un-lost, although your allies can lead you out.

62, Whatever you gift to a corpse cannot be found by others, but the corpse may not want to give it back to you, either.

63, You may suck sickness from the skin of an innocent, but you suffer the effects until you can spit it on a child.

64, Whenever you are enclosed in a coffin and buried at least 6' underground, you can speak with any corpses within 500'.  Treat this as speak with dead except that the dead all speak to you at once, and are very talkative and frequently hostile.  Requires a save to avoid some bad-but-not-lethal mishap.

65, Magpies gossip to you about the petty jealousies of local villagers. If you bring them new gossip, they might consent to stealing something for you.

66, If you stuff a live frog's mouth with hair and throw it into a fire, the owner is rendered mute as long as the frog burns.

67, You can induce seizures in holy people + clergy + paladins by kissing them.  Lasts 1d6 rounds, but if you spend at least a minute making out with their twitching body, they will lie there enervated and frothing for another 1d6 hours.

68, If you smoke someone, you learn their secrets.  This usually requires an enormous hookah, big enough to shove a living person inside, that would normally cost 1000g to construct.

69, If you fill your mouth with virgin tears, you can either spit out a few ounces of acid or a black arrow, as if fired from a bow (treat as a +1 arrow vs angels).

70, Any spell you cast is brought into this world by vomiting blood.

71, As long as you spend 1 night every week hanging from a gibbet by your neck, you cannot be strangled or suffocated.  (Must be a legitimate gallows, where criminals have been hung.)

72, Whenever you are in a marshy or swampy area, toads will flock to you in reverence.  They will lick your body, groom you with their clumsy hands, and eat any skin/hair parasites that you have.  They will also vomit out gifts for you.  These gifts are mostly gross, but there is a 10% chance that they give you a small piece of jewelry or something.

73, Venomous creatures that bite you are also poisoned in return, and suffer the effects of their own venom if they fail a save.

74, You have 6+1d6 molars at the start of the game.  By throwing one of your molars in the fire, it will hatch into a 1 cm tall imp.  The imp cannot fly and moves about a 1'/min, but if it crawls inside someone's ear, it can implant itself in the womb (or large intestine, if male).  The imp-fetus grows quickly and painfully over 6+1d6 hours, hatching forth into a full grown 1d6 HD demon if it is not removed.  Females survive the process, but menfolk must save or die, due to the more traumatic nature of the exit.

75, You cannot tell the truth to a child, but deep down they believe everything you say.

76, Hanging yourself from a tree puts you into a death-like sleep until someone cuts you down or the rope rots away.

77, Cats, royal fools, and children under 5 cannot see you. These last become extremely distressed when confronted with proof of your presence.

78, You have scary-starey Aleister Crowley eyes (http://www.energyenhancement.org/aleister11.jpg) possibly as a result of hours spent practicing your glaring in a mirror. You gain a slight (+/-1) bonus to seduction attempts and spells of charm, domination, fear or suggestion. You suffer a slight (+/-1) penalty to first impressions, attempts to placate or avoid scandal and anything connected with a lawsuit. 

79, Eating a bird's eyes allows you to view everything it saw for the past 24 hours.

80, You can heal the most horrid internal wound if you can make the victim swallow some thread, needles and a razor blade.

81, You cannot enter a door if its threshold has a pentagram painted with salt or blood.

82, You must do 7 evil things each month or the devil will come to get you. Sacrileges, incitement to a deadly sin or murder count but stealing or fornicating with animals do not.

83, You can sleep only on a sack of rancid hay. Everything else feels really uncomfortable and drives you nuts.

84, Once a day, you must redirect the blame for something bad that happened on the day before to yourself. This can be anything, an unfortunate death, spoiled milk, the weather or a poor decisions made by an otherwise reasonable person. Failure to do so means the GM gets to pick, at their leisure.

85, If a enamoured woman, an orphan or a widow in distress ask for your help in a desperate matter and offer you a single gold coin then you cannot reject them and must act up to three times towards that cause. You can however interpret the problem to your taste...

86, You can enchant a severed tree branch of your height to have it, at night, carry you through the air to the nearest witch or hag coven.

87, To you, hot is cold and cold is hot. You stride naked in the snow but must bundle up ridiculously in heat.

88, You can read anyone's aura. It tells you how gullible they are. You may make a Charisma check to sense their Wisdom penalty, if any.

89, With an overnight ritual, you can weave any spell you know into the flesh of an apple still on the branch. It retains the magic for 24 hours or until eaten.

90, You can peel footprints off the ground and place them wherever you want.

91, You can punch, kick, & grab other people's shadows as if they were their physical bodies.

92, Your are a name thief. You may steal one victim's name at a time. The victim is normal in all respects except that no one will remember their name, even if it is written down. No extraplanar entity or spirit will be able to do business with the victim. Also, any curses or demonic contracts are transferred to you.  To cast a spell, eat a letter from your victim's name. Once all of the letters are consumed, the victim gets a pile of random Scrabble tiles, as many as their name had, to build a new name. Obviously this process can be interrupted, but the name is still missing any letters you ate when you give it back. 

93, You cannot die during an eclipse, but suffer all harm inflicted upon you when it ends

94, When you dance, so do the dead.

95, You are completely invisible to domesticated dogs, house cats think you're three feet to the left of where you really are, and swine always act in your presence as if under the influence of a charm spell.

96, You can ensure that a willing supplicant's unborn child is later born healthy and free of physical flaw. If the fool who promised fails to carry out the favor when called upon, you can call their debt due, resulting in a turn of bad luck that results in the child being maimed in mind or body. (e.g. Paralyzed after the parent attacks them in the night due to mistaking them for a burglar.) If the original supplicant dies before the debt is called due, the debt is inherited by the child.

97, Areas where you have often trod develop a fungal growth under the surface that sometimes erupts in mushrooms at night.  A pig can be used to trace you back to your home, but the pig must wear a muzzle, as consumption of the mushrooms or fungus by any creature may (1 in d4) cause d6 random minor spells to go off, plaguing or injuring the pig and any handlers nearby. The witches who develop this trait would also like to know more about how and why the fungus is sometimes harvested by unknown creatures burrowing up from deep under the earth in small tunnels.

98, The many scabs under your hair may be picked at, releasing thousands of small ant-like insects that seek out and form a trail to drink from the eyes of sleeping children and virgins.

99, By sewing your lips together, none may speak in your presence. 


100, Your footprints are those of the last thing you have killed.

Entries contributed by: Reynaldo Madriñan , Jason K , Logan Knight , Anthony Picaro , Chris H , Matthew Adams , Mandy Morbid , Arnold K. , Reece Carter , Courtney Campbell , Brian Murphy , Daniel Dean , Ryan Silva , Mateo Diaz , Enzo Garabatos , David Sánchez and , Anders Nordberg , Evan Edwards , Joshua Macy , Lucien Reeve , Timothy Franklin , Cole Robotshenanigans , Adam Silkey , Lior Wehrli , Eric Nieudan , Axis Mundi , Bennet Akkerman , David Pretty , Simon Forster , Jack Mack , Marcus Tsong , and Scrap Princess
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Thursday, February 6, 2014

Sing The Corrosion

You could probably use the way this spell works as a template for cleric spells specific to any given god. I might've done a d20 table but Vorn just doesn't have a very diverse portfolio.

This version is for version of D&D with 9 cleric spell levels but it's easy to modify.
*
Wrath of Vorn 1 thru Wrath of Vorn 9
Level: 1-9--Cleric must choose spell level when preparing, like "I take one Wrath of Vorn 5 and 2 Wrath of Vorn 6's"
Range: 40 feet (see also below)
Area of Effect: 1 target (also see below)
Duration:  One fight or ten rounds, whichever ends first
Saving Throw: Not usually

Roll d6 when spell is cast and consult the following table, comparing the die roll to the chosen level of the spell:

Over the Wrath's chosen spell level: Rusts one targeted object (or human-sized area of a large object) beyond use. Living things and magic items get a save.
Equal: As above plus any metal the creature is wearing constricts it for cleric's level damage per round until removed.
Under by 1: Creature vomits rust-poisoned water on all allies within 10 feet, the creature is helpless for a round and the allies all take cleric's level poison damage.
Under by 2: All attacks with anything metal directed at target automatically hit for one round.
Under by 3: All metal on target rusts beyond use, living things and magic items do not get a save.
Under by 4: Victim throws self in front of the largest metal item in sight, praying before it, heedless of all danger for 2 rounds.
Under by 5: Iron vines grow from inside the target's body, lashing it to the nearest piece of anchored metal (whatever it may be), creeping overland to find an anchor point at 10 feet per round. The victim must save (dragon breath or dex) to avoid being anchored in any round the vines reach a suitable tether point. Otherwise the vines act as a (no save) Slow spell.
Under by 6: All of the above on one target or any one of the above on up to 10 targets.
Under by 7: Any result up to #5 on one target, effect is permanent.
Under by 8: Any result up to #5 on caster level number of targets, effect is permanent.

If this spell is delivered by touch then magic resistance does not apply.

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*This is the second time I've used a picture from this "torvenius" on DeviantArt so I better give credit.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

THE WIZARD!!!!!

WIZARD/WITCH (Magic-User Variant)

...you start with your normal hit points and saves etc. Write those down. Do everything pretty much the way you would in your system.

However, when you level up:

For each new spell slot you get, roll on this table instead of just filling the slot…

1-68 Fill a slot with a spell as usual. Borrring.

69 I sense a great disturbance etc etc You have a form of postcognition that allows you to detect the presence of cast spells, eldritch creatures and the like (not omnipresent magic or currently magical things going on like Detect Magic could) in a given 30x30 foot area within the last day. You will know whether it was a spell or creature or effect or what. Re-rolling this allows you to know the nature of it broadly (enchantment, demon, etc). Re-rolling this a third time tells you exactly what it is. Re-rolling it a fourth time allows you to function as a walking "Detect Magic" spell. After that re-roll.

70 Further advancement will require you to placate obscure gods. You have to adopt a taboo a la the Wu Jen like:
* Cannot eat meat.
* Cannot have more treasure than the character can carry.
* Must make a daily offering (food, flowers, incense) to one or more spirit powers.
* Cannot bathe.
* Cannot cut hair.
* Cannot touch a dead body.
* Cannot drink alcoholic beverages.
* Cannot wear a specified color of cloth.
* Cannot light a fire.
* Cannot sit facing a specified compass direction.
Each time you re-roll this you need to take up another one.

71 Wizard Lie. You can tell one lie per day (one sentence long) and be automatically believed by anyone at least half your level (round up). Re-rolling this means you can tell two lies, then three, etc.

72 After long eons of patient and lonely research you've found it--that thing you wanted? The Star Swallower? The dragon egg? The mountain fortress? It's there. 4 sessions worth of adventure away or less. Tell your GM, who then must place it.

You must have a fair shot at it--like any other treasure, but there's no guarantee you will get it. If you don't get it by the fourth session you can keep trying or let it go and roll again on this table. However if you choose to roll again and then you do get the thing somehow anyway, you lose whatever gimmick you rolled. GM think up some clever reason why.


73 Cruel curse. This is basically a spell usable once per day. Range: 100'. Area of effect: 1 creature per level. Duration: 1 day/level Save negates.
To trigger the curse, the caster must observe the target  (any creature with fewer hit dice than the caster) perform the same action for at least two consecutive rounds. The caster may then invoke one of two effects: 
a) The target creature must continuously do one thing chosen by the caster that it was doing in the last two turns,
 or…
b) the target can never do some chosen thing it was doing in the last two turns.
The repeated/forbidden action cannot be anything the creature normally always does (breathe, touch the ground, etc). The effect of the curse can be something that will probably kill the creature in its current circumstance but it cannot be something that would inevitably kill it regardless of circumstance. For example: the curse could not compel a creature to stop breathing but it could compel a creature to continue walking in a straight line even if that line (in the particular situation) would lead it off a cliff.
No two Cruel Curses may be identical (which is why curses tend to be weirdly specific).

74 Your powers inspire awe in lesser beings. You have an exceptionally (though not supernaturally) intelligent and loyal henchman, hound or horse (your choice). This individual cannot be slain, kidnapped or otherwise traduced "offscreen" by the GM, so if he or she's in trouble and your PC is not around you get to play it out. Of you re-roll this and your previous one is not dead, you get to add another hit die to your pal.

75 BAH! You have glimpsed primal vistas both horrific and majestic in your meditations. The mundane world does not concern you. Immune to fear. If you re-roll this, your companions gain a +2 vs fear if they can see you, then +4 etc

76 You now have a familiar. It has one hit die. If you already had one, it has 2 hit dice.
Roll:
1 Cat
2 Crow
3 Weasel/Marmot
4 Toad
5 Pick one
6 Make one up that's approximately as powerful as one of the creatures listed
It obeys commands, you can see through its eyes and use its special sensory abilities, attacks on it affect you, too, blah blah blah

77 I think I know the counterspell for this… By making a successful saving throw you may turn any spell cast on anyone in line of sight back on the original caster. It's an immediate-interrupt of course but that counts as your action for that turn or the next turn. You can do this once per day. Each time you re-roll this result you get +1 to the save.

78 The dweomers are beginning to fear you. +2 to save vs spell. +1 more every time you roll this. 

79 The constant influence of interdimensional radiation has twisted your body. Gain a random deformity. Describe it. -2 to charisma checks where you're trying to make someone like you, +2 to ones where you're trying to intimidate them or freak them out. +2/-2 more each time you re-roll this.

80 The wyrdness has definitively infected you. You have a mutation that goes beyond mere deformity: an eye that floats an inch outside of its socket, a head with no neck supporting it, a third arm, etc. You can roll a random mutation if you like or pick something. You know those freaky wizards with like 3 extra faces that Thundarr The Barbarian fights? They rolled this a bunch of times.

81 This glove is made of sleep. Take a spell you already possess and bind it into an object. You may now use the spell twice per day and it functions as if you were a level higher. However: the spell is now bound to that object, not you. Whoever has the object can use it. Nonwizards and lower-level wizards use it as if it were cast by a wizard one level lower than you.

82 You always were reading ahead of the rest of the class. Receive a random spell one level higher than you are able to cast. Remember: random.

83 In case of fire cast lightning… One of your existing spells (pick one) is also attached to a form of the Contingency spell. A second "copy" of the spell is set to activate as soon as a trigger event of the caster's choice occurs. The caster may only cast and set a new contingency once a week. In essence, contingency means that rather than having 7 copies of a spell per week at will, the caster now has 8, but the 8th one is only activated by the specific condition. Re-rolling this result allows for another contingency to be set with a different spell.

84 Poorly memorized spell. The caster may select any spell of a level s/he is not normally allowed to cast, only it has a 50% chance of backfiring. Re-rolling this result improves the caster's odds by 1%.

85 Take what you can get in a world of Vancian scarcity… Receive 2 random spells of whatever the highest level you are able to cast is.

86 I know this foul pottery… Roll under int +1 on a d20 to identify obscure pieces of lore and magic items. Add +1 for each time you re-roll this until you get to 19.

87 You been practicing talking slowly and lighting candles. You get one 8th level spell of your choice as a ritual. (9th level if you are able to cast 8th level spells) This means either (your choice):
-it takes 24 minus your Int score hours to cast it and you have to stay in the same place (30x30 square) doing nothing else the whole time,  or… 
-you have to do some dumb elaborate ritual thing that takes only an hour as described by the GM for this effect
Either way the target/are of effect must be right there unless you have a separate scrying spell or suchlike and the spell must be used immediately. You may cast your ritual spell once per month. Rolling this again gets you another one.

88 All this watching people fight has actually sunk in. +1 to hit every time you roll this.

89 You are learning the languages of inanimate objects. You may ask and receive an honest answer from one once per day--plus one more every time you re-roll this.
90 The laws of the unseen world are ever more clear to you. You may write a magical contract. Anyone freely agreeing to such contract and signing it will take d6 damage per your level if they break it. The damage goes up by one die every time you re-roll this.

91 Look out world: You bought chalk! You may summon a demon or similar extradimensional creature with one less hit die/level than you have once a month. It will serve for 6 days plus one more for each time you re-roll this result. If you have a familiar, it will possess your familiar and serve through that. If you do not have a familiar but do have any henchindividuals, then it will possess them and serve through them.
When the time is up, the creature gets to stay on the material plane and do what it wants. So….good luck with that.
Re-rolling this result means you can summon a creature with HD equal to your level, then one more, then one more etc etc

92 The souls of common folk are easily read. On a successful wisdom check you can read both the aspect and aura of anyone at least 2 hit dice/levels lower than you. You know if they're lying, if they are under magical influence, and if they are what they seem. Re-rolling this adds one to the check.

93 You crackle with misappropriated energies. On a successful save against magic you not only successfully resist a spell, you may release it any time in the next 8 hours--effectively casting that spell as if it were your own. You may not cast any other spells until you release the stored spell. This only works on spells that affect only you or an area only you and/or your familiar occupy (like if Rock to Mud was cast and you were the only one in the room, you could absorb that). If you re-roll this result, you may use it on spells targeting you and one other person, if you re-roll it again then it goes for you and 2 other targets, etc etc.

94 Stuff that shouldn't come off does. You have one removable limb or organ (pick: hand, eye, heart, etc). It functions as normal when separated from you and you receive any sensory information it picks up. It can travel a maximum of 100' from you before you are in trouble. Each time you roll this, pick another.

95 The sorcerer has a second shape... You can turn into one other thing at will because hey, wizards sometimes are like that. It can be another humanoid shape, like just some random otherwise-looking person or it can be an ordinary animal somewhere between your size and cat size. You have to decide what the thing is: its stats are exactly the same as yours and it has no special movement or sensory powers. I mean, if it's smaller than you it can move through smaller doors but otherwise whatever. Each time you re-roll this you get one other shape you can assume.

96 Your studies have unleashed a wild dweomer into your mind. Basically this means you have one spell (of whatever level you were rolling this result to replace) which is totally random each morning. Roll to see what it is. Re-rolling this result means you get another one plus one extra random spell each morning. And if you re-roll it again you get another plus two extra, etc. So the first time you do it you're like "Mannn, I shoulda just played a regular wizard" but after that you start racking up bonus random spells, which is nice, right?

97 Vile indeed is this corrupted earth…so you hover an inch above the ground at all times because magic. If the ground falls out from under you you still fall, you just land an inch above where you normally would. -d6 to all falling damage. -d6 more each time you re-roll this result.

98 What the hell is he doing over there…? Your unnatural metabolism no longer handles what humans call "food". You eat something else--pick--it must be something that might be present in a forest but not in a bare prison cell. Likewise, your blood, tears, sweat, saliva, etc no longer "taste" human and there is a 1 in 10 chance carnivores will ignore you. This chance goes up by one each time you reroll this result.

99 Zubzubzub ZAAAAAA Once you cast a spell you may hold it to increase its power. It can only be an attack or otherwise baleful spell (not healing or whatever, got it?). You may do nothing else but walk, chant magic words, and make wizardy spellcasting gestures while holding the spell and if you are interrupted the spell is lost. However, for each round the spell is held, either it works as if cast by a wizard one level higher or the save is at -1 (pick). You may do this once per day. Twice if you re-roll this result, three times if you re-roll it again, etc etc

00 Spooky wisdom. If you sleep, you will receive a minor prophecy in a dream. It will communicate some true or likely thing about the outcome of whatever's on your mind as you sleep.